Dubium: Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer
priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as
belonging to the deposit of faith.

Responsum: Affirmative.

This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of
God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of
the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal
Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff,
exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has
handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is
to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the
faith.

The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned
Cardinal Prefect, approved this Reply, adopted in the Ordinary Session of this
Congregation, and ordered it to be published.

Rome, from the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the
Feast of the Apostles SS. Simon and Jude, October 28, 1995.